Product description

Rory Dawn Hendrix is in a Girl Scout troop of one. She lives in a trailer park called the Calles de las Flores near Reno. And she's determined to leave, childless, before her sixteenth birthday. Easier said than done.

Author information

Tupelo Hassman graduated from Columbia's MFA programme. Her writing has been published in the Portland Review Literary Journal, Paper Street Press, Tantalum, We Still Like and ZYZZYVA, among others. Girlchild is her first novel. She lives in Oakland, California.

Review quote

'This amazing debut spills over with love but is still absolutely unflinching and real ... she's really that kind of fresh new voice people talk about' Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. 'Ms. Hassman is such a poised storyteller that her prose practically struts. Her words are as elegant as they are fierce. A voice as fresh as hers is so rare that at times I caught myself cheering ... I don't know about you, but I'd go anywhere with this writer' New York Times. 'Hassman's wildly inventive prose explodes off the page' Heather O'Neill, author of Lullabies for Little Criminals. 'a compelling, layered narrative told by a protagonist with a voice so fresh, original, and funny you'll be in awe. This novel rocks ... Rory Dawn Hendrix of the Calle has as precocious and endearing a voice as Holden Caulfield of Central Park' The Boston Globe. 'a gorgeous first novel, as humorous as it is heartbreaking' Mara Dabrishus, Library Journal . 'This novel's tawdry setting provides the crucible for a work of real beauty' Guardian. 'lyrical and fiercely accomplished first novel ... In Hassman's skilled hands, what could have been an unrelenting chronicle of desolation becomes a lovely tribute to the soaring, defiant spirit of a survivor' Helen Rogan, People. 'Hassman's debut gives voice - and soul - to a world so often reduced to cliche' Kirkus Reviews. 'The voice in Tupelo Hassman's Girlchild is funny and pained, confused and outrageous - a triumph and a philosophical treatise on survival' Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of the National Book Award finalist American Salvage.